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Virgin Earth

The Tradescant Series

Virgin Earth is a tour-de-force of powerful politics, personal discovery and glorious gardening details from one of our most acclaimed novelists. John Tradescant the younger has inherited his father’s unique collection of plants along with his unerring ability to be able to nurture them. But as gardener to Charles I, he confronts an unbearable dilemma when England descends into Civil War. Fleeing from the chaos, John travels to the Royalist colony of Virginia in America.

But the virgin land is not uninhabited. John’s plant hunting brings him to live with the native people, and he learns to love and respect their way of life just as it is threatened by the colonial settlers. He is adopted into the Powhatan people of Virginia and marries his guide to the world, Suckahanna. Just as his political life is divided between royalist and rebel, his plant hunting and nurturing between England and America, he finds his emotional life is divided between the English woman he married for convenience and the Powhatan woman he married for desire.

In the new world and the old, the established order is breaking down and every family has to find its own way of surviving. For the Tradescants, through the upheavals of the Commonwealth and the Restoration, this means consolidating their reputations as the greatest gardeners in the country.

Philippa Gregory

The Tradescant Series

Released in 1999

This was one of my favourite books to
write, I researched it on a visit to Jamestown and went on to a reservation for
the Pamunky (Powhatan) people. I was honoured with an invitation into a private
home and had a long talk about the history of the people. This book is divided
between the two terrible conflicts: colonists against indigenous peoples in
America, and royalists against roundheads in England. I met the great historian
of the period Christopher Hill and asked him did he think it possible that a
man like John Tradescant might leave England to escape the conflict and he
laughed and said that any sensible man would leave England in the middle of a
civil war - so I felt very justified in my development of John's character and
the two locations of this novel of a man divided between two loves.

The book opens in 1638

Charles I is on the throne. He has dissolved parliament for the third time and resolved to rule alone. In order to manage the debts generated during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I and fund his overseas wars with Spain and France, Charles repeatedly invented new and re-established obsolete forms of taxation. This during a time when harvests were failing caused widespread poverty and social unrest. Charles had become increasingly unpopular with the English people – his friendship with the assassinated George Villiers Duke of Buckingham had alienated the noble families whilst his failure to successfully support Protestant forces during the Thirty Years' War and marriage to a Roman Catholic French Princess caused suspicion and mistrust amongst his people. As the country descended into civil war, many chose to emigrate to the recently settled American colonies in search of freedom – despite Charles's attempts to stem the flow.

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The Women of the Cousins' War

Released 2011

“ My first published history book. It was extraordinary to use the material that I had researched for a novel and write it as a "straight" history. I also wrote the foreword to this collection of three historical essays about the women that have come to fascinate me: Jacquetta the Duchess of Bedford, Elizabeth Woodville, the Queen, and Margaret Beaufort, the King's Mother. ”

1416

When this book opens in 1416, with the birth of Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Henry V is on the throne and England is at war with France in a series of conflicts that would later become known as The Hundred Years' War. Henry VI takes the throne in 1422 and begins his long reign of England through some of its most turbulent times including Joan of Arc's mission and beginning of The Wars of the Roses - though at the time it was known as The Cousins' War as the feuding families of York and Lancaster fought for power and position.

The Lady of the Rivers

Released 2011

“ When I started research on Jacquetta Duchess of Bedford I found pretty much nothing. There was a chapter in a PhD thesis, and one essay. And yet this is the mother and grandmother of queens of England, and a major player at both royal courts of Lancaster and York. There was more magic in this story than any I have written since the more fictional novel The Wise Woman and this was because Jacquetta was descended from a family who claimed to have a water spirit in their family tree, and she was associated for all her life with the practise of witchcraft. I found her to be utterly fascinating, and I hope that historians go on to research her life in detail. ”

1430

Henry VI is a child king, only nine years old, crowned before his first birthday after the death of his father Henry V on campaign. England is in the midst of the Hundred Years' War in France, however life in England is peaceful for most. Sensing an opportunity to overthrow the weakened House of Lancaster, the House of York led by Richard Duke of York claim a stronger link to the throne. This rivalry brings about a series of devastating battles which would come to be known as The Wars of The Roses and would turn neighbour against neighbour, cousin against cousin.

The Red Queen

Released 2010

“ As soon as I had completed my research on The White Queen I realised that I wanted to write a companion novel about the other side, the Tudors and Margaret Beaufort the matriarch of their house. ”

1453

Now a grown man, Henry VI has maintained his hold on the English throne, despite decades of political and military challenges by the House of York. The Hundred Years' War comes to an end in France and England is defeated, losing all of her territory except for Calais. News of defeat drives King Henry into an unresponsive stupor. His wife, the despised Margaret of Anjou, cannot keep control and their great rival Richard Duke of York becomes Protector of the Realm. England is in limbo: a king crippled by insanity, a disliked and mistrusted queen, and two great families vying for control of the kingdom. Meanwhile a third potential line of succession is emerging from the agreed marriage of the newly ennobled Edmund Tudor Earl of Richmond to the child heiress Margaret Beaufort.

Order of Darkness Volumes I–III

Released 2017

“ My first three books in the Order of Darkness series
which proved to be a really liberating experience. The series opens in 1460 and the
circumstances of the novels are authentic history but the characters are
completely invented and their adventures are imaginary. This gives me a chance
to be more novelist than historian and I have loved this series and the way
that the completely fictional characters are free to develop. ”

1460

In
Italy, the renaissance is gaining momentum and Italians are becoming
increasingly interested in learning and understanding classical thinking and
philosophy. Despite this growing focus on intellectual curiosity, there remains
a strong loyalty to the Catholic Church and belief in magic, mysticism and
superstition is rife. In order to retain its control, the Church must identify
which phenomena can be rationally explained and which may really be magic.

Order of Darkness Volume IV – Dark Tracks

Released 2018

“ I think this is my favourite volume of the Order of Darkness series so far. This series is set in the fifteenth century, during the rapid expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. They brought with them the Arab learning in maths, science, medicine and astronomy. For the resident Christians, this was thought to signal the end of the world and the Pope named all non-Christians enemies of the true faith. In this time of great fear and superstition our fictional travellers have been recruited by the Order of Darkness, a Christian group tasked with investigating and reporting on the signs of the end of days. In Dark Tracks, the group have reached Austria, where they are confronted with the reality of medieval antisemitism. ”

1461

Unusual occurrences are happening in the village of Mauthausen, Austria. People have begun to dance, endlessly and without stopping. They are constantly joined by new dancers, like a plague spreading from one person to next. The villagers are terrified of becoming dancers themselves, believing they have been possessed by demons. This unexplainable phenomenon must be investigated and the truth discovered. Are these people truly possessed, or is there some kind of rational explanation to explain why people are literally dancing themselves to their deaths?

The White Queen

Released 2009

“ This was my first step back in time from the Tudors. I had read that Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII had been Richard III's lover, and this was such an extraordinary claim that I started to read about her, and from her to her mother, the almost-unknown Elizabeth Woodville. When I started to look at her there was only one reliable biography, by historian David Baldwin, and it was on his biography and my own research that I based this first book in the series that has gone on to be a major BBC TV series. ”

1464

The country has been torn apart by the Wars of the Roses between the royal houses of York and Lancaster.
The old king Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou have escaped to Scotland and the Lancastrian armies have been decimated by the York forces at the Battle of Towton - the bloodiest ever fought on English soil.
England has a new king on the throne: Edward IV of the House of York - young, handsome and daring.

The Kingmaker's Daughter

Released 2012

“ Nearly named the Kingmaker's Daughters, this is the story of Isabel and Anne Neville, daughters to the Earl of Warwick who fought for both York and Lancaster, but always for himself. Anne is married to Prince Edward and could easily have been a Lancastrian Queen of England but for the fortunes of war which meant that she married Richard III and became a York Queen of England. It's a story about ambition and the price that has to be paid. ”

1465

King Edward IV's secret marriage Elizabeth Woodville fractured his relationship with his cousin and supporter Richard Neville Earl of Warwick, who was known as 'The Kingmaker'. Warwick believed that he would be in a position to rule England through Edward; when he could not, he began to look elsewhere for power and used his daughters Isabel and Anne to create new alliances.

The White Princess

Released 2013

“ Oh! I love this book so much. This is the story of Elizabeth of York who is forced to marry Henry VII as part of the peace settlement to bring about the end of the Cousins' War. To her horror she finds her throne is threatened by a young man who is claiming to be her brother Richard, missing from the Tower of London. Half of England sides with the young man against the usurping Tudor, what should Elizabeth do? I think this is probably one of the most complex historical novels I have ever written - the merging of the personal and the political is very intense, and the blending of the historical research and the imagined psychologies has been a great joy. ”

1485

Henry Tudor is king, snatching the crown from Richard III in a surprise victory at the Battle of Bosworth. Raised in exile in Brittany
and having taken the throne with a French and Scottish force, Henry had neither
the easy popularity nor the longstanding political allegiances of the House of
York. As a result, he had to face repeated rebellions and threats to his
throne. In an attempt to unify the warring Houses of Lancaster and York, Henry
marries the York Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth
Woodville.

The Constant Princess

Released 2005

“ The story of Katherine of Aragon who is very neglected by historians, but who was the longest-serving wife of Henry VIII, and who helped him to take the throne and learn the trade of kingship. I was fascinated by her background, I travelled to Granada to see for myself her childhood home, the beautiful Alhambra palace, and I became certain that the young woman that she became was far more interesting and active than the picture we have of her of the 'old woman' that would be replaced by the 'young mistress'. Deliberately I ended the novel at the moment of her greatest triumph when she was a successful queen militant as her mother Isabella of Spain had been. ”

1491

Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York's son Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales is betrothed to the Spanish Princess Katherine of Aragon. But Arthur's sudden death, followed by his mother's, leaves Henry Tudor with a difficult to decision, to marry his son's wife himself or to arrange her marriage to his younger son.

The King's Curse

Released 2014

“ This is a novel which changed its nature, content and significance from when I started research until publication. Right up until the last stage of copy editing I was revising and adding material and characters to this dark story. I started it, thinking that it would be a relatively simple telling of the tragic story of Margaret Pole – daughter of George Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville. George was the brother of Edward IV, probably drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine for treason against Edward and Queen Elizabeth. As the book progressed I discovered that Margaret was a central figure in the Tudor court, and probably actively involved in the endless conspiracies against Henry VIII and his advisors. This hidden rebellion reached its peak in the uprising of the North called the Pilgrimage of Grace. The pilgrims won their aims of defending the Roman Catholic traditions and the return of the traditional advisors, but Henry reneged on his promises and sent his troops for a terrible persecution to men who held a royal pardon. Margaret, and her entire family, came under suspicion too and this novel moved far from the template of a persecuted heroine and became the story of a merciless murder of a family. Margaret's betrayer, and her defenders all come under the gaze of a king who was increasingly frightened and, I believe delusional. It's been a chilling and powerful book to write and the image of Henry VIII, composer of 'Greensleeves' beloved of primary school history, will never be the same again for me. He was a serial killer and this book traces his steps towards psychosis. ”

1499

England is under a Tudor king. Henry VII has two sons with Elizabeth of York, which should have secured his line, yet his court is still filled with fear and suspicion. Plantagenet is a dangerous name to carry and the heiress Margaret Pole is swiftly married off to a staunch Tudor supporter, but her brother Edward's claim cannot be ignored. Henry executes him on Tower Hill, leaving Margaret to face a lifetime of uncertainty.

Three Sisters, Three Queens

Released 2016

“ 'Three Sisters, Three Queens': the title of my new book featuring Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's older sister, only came to me when I realised that the book was not just about this extraordinary woman who married three times, twice against the wishes of her family for love, ruled Scotland and raised a king; but also about her equally formidable sister-in-law, Katherine of Aragon, and her sister Mary Tudor. It was extraordinary to see how the fortunes of one woman rose coincidentally with the failure of another, and how the issues of arranged marriage, widowhood, divorce and re-marriage dominated the lives of all three. I was also writing very much to the idea of sisterhood – the rivalry, love, pride and jealousy that sisters often bring to each other. I wanted this book to go to the very heart of being a sister, a queen, and sister to a great queen. ”

1501

Katherine of Aragon, Infanta of Spain, has arrived in England to marry Arthur Prince of Wales. King Henry VII’s hugely expensive celebrations are attended by ambassadors negotiating his next diplomatic success – the marriage of Princess Margaret and James IV of Scotland. With her brother on the throne of England and herself on the throne of Scotland Margaret is to ensure a Perpetual Peace between the two endlessly warring countries – a strategy far more easily planned than enacted.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Released 2001

“ This has to be one of my favourite books of all time for it is the one that made my name, was adapted by the BBC and Hollywood, and established the style that has come to be my 'signature' style: the first person view of history from a lesser known, or perhaps unknown, historical character. Mary Boleyn was a great find and this novel has given rise to three biographies about her, and established her as a historical character instead of being the sister that nobody knew about. ”

1521

King Henry VIII is married to his brother's widow, Katherine of Aragon, who has given him a daughter, Princess Mary. An attractive and
charismatic king, Henry quickly created a grand and fashionable court, full of
celebration and pleasure. When Katherine cannot give him the son that he needs and his lover's sister Anne Boleyn arrives at court, he decides to take action that will change England and its religion forever.

The Wise Woman

Released 1992

“ A book in which I released some of my thoughts and fears about magic and superstition, this remains a powerful book for me. It was set in County Durham and Morach's cottage was my home for three years. I frightened myself in the writing of it so much that I could only write during daylight hours. But I think it is more than a scary book – I think it is also a consideration of how a woman is to be, and who should be her mentors. ”

1535

Henry VIII has reformed the
Church of England, breaking away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman
Catholic Church. Keen to reinforce his position as the new head of the Church
and to take advantage of the wealth of the Catholic Church, Henry began the
Dissolution – the raiding and wrecking of all of the Catholic convents and
monasteries in England. In this time of religious tensions and instability,
belief in witchcraft and the supernatural began to spread throughout the
country, causing increasing concern. As a result, King Henry decides to
introduce an Act of Parliament making witchcraft punishable by death – and
making England a much more dangerous place for a young woman without wealth or
family.

The Boleyn Inheritance

Released 2006

“ I remember writing this novel very vividly for a bad fall from my horse had confined me to bed for six weeks in a lot of pain, and I dived into this novel so that I could take myself somewhere else. What a world I stepped into! My Anne of Cleves, unlike the cliche of the fat Flanders mare, is a pretty courageous energetic survivor, and my Katherine Howard is not a 'slut' (as a modern historian has called her) but a young girl foolish and vain as young girls sometimes are, but dangerously ill advised and married more or less against her best interests to the most dangerous man in England. I tackle the enigma of Jane Rochford in this novel too. Nobody knows for sure why she would be complicit in the execution of two queens of England - I suggest madness, but readers must make up their own minds. ”

1539

Just eleven days after King Henry VIII had his second wife Anne beheaded for treason, he married Jane Seymour who gave him a son, Prince Edward, but died soon after his birth. King Henry needed more sons to secure his line and safeguard the House of Tudor, he looked overseas for this next bride and picked Anne of Cleves but would soon be side-tracked by the young, vivacious Katherine Howard.

The Taming of the Queen

Released 2015

“ All of my titles are a bit of a labour of love, because I see them as a sort of cryptic message to the reader which sometimes says what the book is simply about, and sometimes says what it means. The title for this book had to reflect my real admiration for the heroine, and also the challenge she faced – not just to survive, but also to retain her courage and her power and her vision. The heroine/narrator is Kateryn Parr, Henry VIII's last and little-known queen, a woman who came to her own individual understanding of her husband, an increasingly sick and tyrannical king, and the world that she lived in. She was a leader of reform and (to me the most important) the first woman to publish her own work in print under her own name in England in English. This is so extraordinary I don't know why we aren't all taught her in schools. But what to call her fictionalised biography? Of course, I knew that she had to silence her voice and keep her writing secret during the months that Henry suspected her, and so I wanted something that would acknowledge his power over her. This is not trivial or romantic – this is tyranny to a murderous degree. And I wanted something which put her in the bitter context of all the other women who are silenced. In this way, Kateryn speaks for all who have not been allowed an education, or to speak, or to write.Then I learned that Nicholas Udall, the playwright, had possibly premiered a play before her called 'Ralph Roister Doister' – a play about a household of women with a woman head and their spirited and violent defence against an aggressive bullying man. Borrowed by Shakespeare and skewed towards male power this became 'The Taming of the Shrew' – the story of a powerful furious woman who submits to an aggressive bullying man. I had my title: ‘The Taming of the Queen’ – a novel about a woman who is silenced by male power and terrorised by male threat, but who survives to write, to make her own life, and even to love. ”

1543

Only
months after the king sentenced his fifth wife to death, he was looking for his
sixth, and chose the recently-widowed, thirty-year-old Kateryn Parr, who was
planning to marry the handsome bachelor Thomas Seymour. As soon as the king
showed his interest in the beautiful widow she had to serve the interests of
her family and agree to marry him, become Queen of England and stepmother to his
children, and rule England in his absence. But the king, old, angry and in pain,
was hard to please; and very soon Kateryn’s outspoken support of the
Reformation put her in grave danger from the courtiers, conspiring for power.

The Queen's Fool

Released 2003

“ Whenever people tell me their
favourite of all my books, this is the one that is most often mentioned. I
think people love the character of Hannah, who is invented but inspired by the
existence of a real female 'Fool' who served Mary I. If you have a hardback
edition you can see the royal picture which is thought to show her in a doorway in the
endpapers. It is one of my favourite books and led on to The Virgin's Lover. ”

1548

Henry VIII is dead,
succeeded by his only legitimate son, nine year old Edward VI. Too young to
rule, the realm is governed by a Regency Council, led by his uncle, Edward
Seymour. Edward has continued his father's reformation of the church and
Protestantism is becoming established, however England is still unsettled with
rioting and rebellions common. Edward was close to and well loved by both of
his half-sisters: the Catholic Princess Mary, daughter of Katherine of Aragon
and the Protestant Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the executed Anne Boleyn.
However, he and his advisors were concerned that should he die without issue, his sister Princess Mary would return the country to
Catholicism.

The Last Tudor

Released 2017

“ This has been a journey of discovery for me into the lives and characters of the Grey girls. I knew of Jane before I started research but I knew next to nothing about her sisters and it was a lucky guess that there was more behind the sentimental portrait of Jane that took me to the stories of the three of them. I struggled for a title until I had finished the book and then I chose this ambiguous one. Mary is the last Tudor of the Brandon branch – a fascinating and unknown character to end such a famous line – but Elizabeth is the last ruling Tudor, the throne inherited by a Stuart. She could have named Katherine as an heir and put a Tudor/Seymour boy on the throne of England and broken the jinx on Tudor male heirs. But her rivalry and paranoia was too much for her. The stories of the Grey girls show the enterprise and courage of young Elizabethan women who defied two queens, to make their own lives. Jane chose death rather than deny her faith, and her sisters conspired against the throne, pursuing their own loves and ambitions and risking their sister’s fate: execution for treason. This is the darkest portrait I have ever seen of Elizabeth – I have responded only to the facts of her treatment of her cousins, who as kinswomen and heirs should have been under her protection but found themselves at the centre of her fears. ”

1550

England’s king, Edward VI, the Protestant son of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII, is not yet 18 years old. The country is ruled by a council of men who jostled for control of the young king. Edward has no male heir, and does not favour his two half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. When Edward’s health starts to deteriorate the race is on to secure an heir and the council looks to Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of Mary Tudor Queen of France.

The Virgin's Lover

Released 2004

“ This is an interesting book for me since the logic of the narrative and the characters involved in the story made me look at the real life evidence for the accidental death of Amy Dudley. When I was writing the novel it was widely accepted that she had broken her neck as a result of a fall. It seemed to me that murder was a far more likely cause, and you can read the novel to see who I suspect. It was very exciting when, long after publication, the original documents of her inquest were found showing that she died from blows to the head made by a weapon. Amy Dudley was indeed murdered, but we still don't know who was the murderer. ”

1558

Upon his
unexpected early death in 1553, King Edward VI nominated his cousin, a committed Protestant, Lady Jane Grey as his
successor. Just nine days after she was crowned, Edward's sister Princess Mary had raised supporters and persuaded the Privy Council to
switch their allegiance - declaring her the rightful queen and imprisoning Jane. Queen
Mary began to reverse the Protestant reformation of her father, restoring Roman
Catholic bishops and persecuting Protestants. Despite
several reported pregnancies, Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain produced no
children. So on her death, her sister the Protestant Princess Elizabeth
succeeded her to the throne.

The Other Queen

Released 2008

“ It is a challenge to write a novel about Mary Queen of Scots – so much has been written about her already – a play and an opera as well as dozens of histories. In this novel I looked at her long years of imprisonment and the extraordinary triangle that developed between her, her gaoler the Earl of Shrewsbury and his wonderful wife Bess of Hardwick. The dynamic between these three makes this novel not just a historical novel about the times but a psychological study of three people trapped together. ”

1568

Elizabeth
I has been Queen of England for ten years. She is still unmarried, despite
considering several suitors and having conducted a love affair with the married
Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester – whose wife had then died under suspicious
circumstances. With no heir, Elizabeth refused to name a successor – leading to
the dissolution of parliament and putting England in a potentially dangerous
position. One possible successor to Elizabeth was her first cousin once removed – the
Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, whom many English Catholics believed to be the
true English heir to the throne. However Mary is under imprisonment in Loch
Leven Castle after marrying her third husband James Hepburn, 4th Earl of
Bothwell – the man widely believed to have earlier murdered Mary's second
husband Lord Darnley – and she appeals to her cousin Elizabeth for support.

Earthly Joys

Released 1998

“ My editor had suggested that I write a biography – they were hugely fashionable in this year – and I wanted to write about someone who worked with his hands. While I was puzzling about who would be the subject of a fictional biography I was given a book on plant collectors and gardeners and read of John Tradescant. It happened that I visited a garden centre, and tripped and literally fell into a tray of Tradescantia. It was enough of a hint! I started research on John Tradescant and found enough material for two books, and developed an entirely new style of writing: the fictionalised biography. ”

1603

In
1603, at the age of 69, Queen Elizabeth died and was succeeded by her cousin
King James VI of Scotland – finally uniting the crowns of Scotland and England
and beginning the Stuart reign of England.

Virgin Earth

Released 1999

“ This was one of my favourite books to
write, I researched it on a visit to Jamestown and went on to a reservation for
the Pamunky (Powhatan) people. I was honoured with an invitation into a private
home and had a long talk about the history of the people. This book is divided
between the two terrible conflicts: colonists against indigenous peoples in
America, and royalists against roundheads in England. I met the great historian
of the period Christopher Hill and asked him did he think it possible that a
man like John Tradescant might leave England to escape the conflict and he
laughed and said that any sensible man would leave England in the middle of a
civil war - so I felt very justified in my development of John's character and
the two locations of this novel of a man divided between two loves. ”

1638

Charles I is on the throne. He has dissolved parliament for the third time and resolved to rule alone. In order to manage the debts generated during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I and fund his overseas wars with Spain and France, Charles repeatedly invented new and re-established obsolete forms of taxation. This during a time when harvests were failing caused widespread poverty and social unrest. Charles had become increasingly unpopular with the English people – his friendship with the assassinated George Villiers Duke of Buckingham had alienated the noble families whilst his failure to successfully support Protestant forces during the Thirty Years' War and marriage to a Roman Catholic French Princess caused suspicion and mistrust amongst his people. As the country descended into civil war, many chose to emigrate to the recently settled American colonies in search of freedom – despite Charles's attempts to stem the flow.

Wideacre

Released 1987

“ This is my first novel, which I wrote as I completed my PhD in 18th century history and literature, when – without planning to do so – I served an apprenticeship in the 18th century novels which were being invented at that time. The oppression of women, the rebellion of the poor all came from the history of the time, the love of landscape from my own childhood and the fevered sexuality all my own imagination. I wrote Wideacre in an old ruled notebook by hand, and put on the front, 'Philippa Gregory – Best Selling Novel'. Unbelievably it was. It sold world-wide in a bidding war and I decided to become a writer. ”

1772

The novel is set in the second part of the eighteenth century, during the time of the enclosure acts, a series of UK Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land in the country. The 'Tragedy of the Commons' removed previously existing rights of local people to carry out activities. Private ownership of land is a modern idea, and was outside the comprehension of most people. The king, or the Lord of the Manor, usually owned an estate, but the people enjoyed all sorts of rights which enabled him, or her, to graze stock, cut wood or peat, draw water or grow crops, on various plots of land at specified times of year.

A Respectable Trade

Released 1995

“ A profoundly important book for me to write, this book tells the story of the English slave trade, the import of black people as slaves into England, an almost totally forgotten history when I started research. The great source book for me was Peter Fryer's Staying Power, in which he writes of the presence of black people in Britain from the Roman Empire onwards. It was a moment of great gladness when he wrote a generous review praising the novel. I travelled to the Gambia to research the African part of the story and while I was there met the schoolmaster who founded, with me, our charity, Gardens for the Gambia. The novel scandalised my home town of Bristol which has tried to forget the terrible legacy of slavery, and inspired many black readers to study the history of 18th century slavery in England. I wrote the screenplay for the BBC TV drama based on the book and was proud to win the Committee for Racial Equality award for best TV drama, and be runner up for a BAFTA. ”

1787

As the 18th century draws to a close, Great Britain has become a major international power through victory over France in the Americas and the colonisation of large parts of India. In England, the Industrial Revolution is taking hold and radically changing both the environment and society. Alongside the spread of the Empire across the globe, the transatlantic trade in slaves also increased dramatically, becoming a very lucrative business for ports such as Bristol and Liverpool. The majority of the enslaved people, stolen from Africa by the British, were sold to the plantations of the European colonies, however, a number were also brought back to Britain to be kept or sold as domestic slaves. By the 1770s, some Christians were beginning to question the morality of the trade. However, the slavers would prove unwilling to give up such a profitable business without a fight.

The Favoured Child

Released 1989

“ This is that difficult beast: the second novel. I rewrote it through more drafts than anything since. I poured into it my thoughts about the gentrification of women, and their use as symbols of status. I still think of it as a novel which has more complexity than one might expect. I loved the heroine and especially the sequences in Bath. I went to stay in Bath to research the history of the town and uncovered a darker side to the spa which I think serves the story well, as it is so much about the shadows of regency England. ”

1790

England is in the grip of the Industrial Revolution. The impact of the Enclosures Act and rapid growth of industry led to an increasing movement of people away from living and working in the countryside and into towns and cities. The earlier influence and status of the rich landowners was under threat from the intellectuals of the enlightenment and as a result, the rigid social hierarchies were beginning to change. Despite such changes however, women were still no closer to gaining access to legal rights or equal academic or professional opportunities. Property and money were held only by men and women were generally under the control of a man – her father and then subsequently her husband. Most women - especially those from wealthy families had few rights and fewer life choices.

Meridon

Released 1990

“ This was the book that I was longing to write from the moment that I finished Wideacre as it was the conclusion of the story and the happy ending. I had a wonderful summer of research when I stayed with a circus for the summer season and travelled with them and worked as a circus hand so that I could understand the life. The Wiltshire sequences are set in a well-loved house near Warminster where I used to stay as a child, and the return to Wideacre took me back to my beloved Sussex. The London sequences I traced out walking around London with a valuable 18th century map as my A to Z, seeing where Meridon might live and how she would ride in the park. It was a hugely joyful book to write and I foresaw in it a happy time for myself, and the horse that I bought after writing about Meridon's beloved grey horse: my own grey horse, Comet. ”

1805

As the nineteenth century opens, the Industrial Revolution is gaining momentum and driving significant economic and social change throughout Great Britain. This combined with the ongoing expansion of the British Empire has led to the United Kingdom becoming the richest and most powerful country in the world. As a result, it is facing threats from its old enemies - Napoleon's France and Spain. Within England, the Industrial Revolution is transforming the economy and leading to a widening gap between the rich and poor. Social dissatisfaction and unrest is increasing.

Fallen Skies

Released 1993

“ One of the books where the fiction foretells the fact. I wrote this novel while I was trying for my second baby and in the novel the heroine gives birth to a blond 7lb boy - so did I. ”

1920

Great Britain is recovering from World War I and the lifting of restrictions created new sorts of night-life in London. Clubs, restaurants and dance halls catered for the new craze of jazz dancing. Wireless radio was to be the technological marvel of the decade. But is was also a period of depression, unemployment was high and mass production techniques started to replace traditional industry.

Alice Hartley's Happiness

Released 1992

“ This was the first comical book that I ever tried to write and it came at a moment when I was feeling relaxed and joyful and ready to laugh at the New Age beliefs, many of which I sincerely embraced. It's a kind of laughing tribute. ”

Released 1996

The Little House

Released 1997

“ Still not yet completely committed to nothing but history I wrote The Little House at high speed and with a sense of the intense drama of the subject: the way that women can be rivals to the death over a man or even a child. Interestingly, I never felt that I took sides in this novel of conflict about a mother-in-law and her son's wife, but almost every reader thinks that I am on the side that she favours. Almost every reader favours the woman who is in her own position! It's a very revealing book to read and discuss. I have heard from very anxious mothers-in-law, and very angry daughters. ”

Bread and Chocolate

Released 2000

“ My first, and to date my only, book of collected short stories where I worked on the idea of describing as little as possible, so the short story is filled with emotion but very little action. The story of the title Bread and Chocolate was inspired by a baking Jesuit. (yes, really). ”

Zelda's Cut

Released 2000

“ This is an odd novel of mine. It's partly a satire on
the business of publishing which I was starting to understand by this time in
my career, partly an ironic commentary on the mistakes a woman makes when she
takes responsibility for everything, but it is mostly a wry musing on the
nature of being a woman – whether in our world femininity is so constructed
that a man could do it as well as a woman, and perhaps – more optimistically – that a real woman will find love if she dares. It was a novel which I wrote
with great imaginative leaps and little planning – I remember my own shock when
the shoes were stolen! It was not a scene I had planned at all, I didn't
understand it then, I don't understand it now, but it has tremendous resonance
for me – and of course, it gave me the last bizarre line. ”